Listen to the audio of today’s Reflection:
https://soundcloud.com/hapearce/reflection-for-january-9-2026
John 7:37-52
Jesus at the Festival of Tabernacles
37 On the last and greatest day of the festival, Jesus stood and said in a loud voice, “Let anyone who is thirsty come to me and drink. 38 Whoever believes in me, as Scripture has said, rivers of living water will flow from within them.” 39 By this he meant the Spirit, whom those who believed in him were later to receive. Up to that time the Spirit had not been given, since Jesus had not yet been glorified.
40 On hearing his words, some of the people said, “Surely this man is the Prophet.”
41 Others said, “He is the Christ.”
Still others asked, “How can the Christ come from Galilee? 42 Does not Scripture say that the Christ will come from David’s family and from Bethlehem, the town where David lived?” 43 Thus the people were divided because of Jesus. 44 Some wanted to seize him, but no one laid a hand on him.
Unbelief of the Jewish Leaders
45 Finally the temple guards went back to the chief priests and the Pharisees, who asked them, “Why didn’t you bring him in?”
46 “No one ever spoke the way this man does,” the guards replied.
47 “You mean he has deceived you also?” the Pharisees retorted. 48 “Have any of the rulers or of the Pharisees believed in him? 49 No! But this mob that knows nothing of the law—there is a curse on them.”
50 Nicodemus, who had gone to Jesus earlier and who was one of their own number, asked, 51 “Does our law condemn a man without first hearing him to find out what he has been doing?”
52 They replied, “Are you from Galilee, too? Look into it, and you will find that a prophet does not come out of Galilee.”
The context makes a big difference when it comes to understanding this passage. Without some background it doesn’t seem to make any sense at all. When you know what was going on in the background, things come into sharp focus.
This particular passage comes at the end of a part of John’s gospel that tells us about Jesus’ attendance at the Festival of Tabernacles. That was an annual harvest festival that had some of the same themes as our Thanksgiving holiday. In earlier passages, John has told us that by this point in his ministry, Jesus had started to attract a wide following. He even relates an odd scene in which the brothers of Jesus had encouraged him to make an appearance at the festival as an opportunity for self-promotion. It’s strange to think that the siblings of Jesus could understand him so poorly they would fail to see that self-promotion was never what Jesus was all about. But instead of attracting attention to himself, Jesus went to Jerusalem quietly – “under the radar,” as we would say. Then once he got there, he went to the Temple and started teaching those who gathered around him.
In telling us the story, John relates some of the controversy that had started to spring up around Jesus. Some people regarded him as a godly man and a charismatic teacher, but others had been convinced by the religious authorities that he was a ‘deceiver.’ The hostility of the leadership toward Jesus is evident from the rumor that was circulating that the authorities wanted Jesus dead.
All of this is background to today’s passage, which takes place on the final day of the festival. One of the rituals of the Festival of Tabernacles involved publicly pouring out water before the worshipers. It seems odd to us, but pouring out a “drink offering” before God made sense as a genuine sacrifice in an arid climate. We should probably understand it as similar to the principle of sacrificing only what is precious to us — like perfect animals from the herd, or even a beloved son.
As John tells the story, when these drink offerings were being poured out, Jesus stepped forward before the assembled crowd and publicly made the same declaration he had made privately to the Samaritan woman at the well outside Sychar – that he was the source of “living water” that would quench the spiritual thirst of those who experienced it. And what’s more, that this living water would allow those who drank it to become ‘spiritual springs’ flowing into the lives of others.
That’s a metaphor that we followers of Jesus should probably think about from time to time. It seems that Jesus didn’t intend his followers to just receive his teachings and the Holy Spirit and keep them to ourselves – rather his intention seems to be that we would become conduits for those teachings and that Spirit to flow into the lives of others.
The last part of today’s reading tells more about the controversy that surrounded Jesus. Some people thought he was the Messiah (That’s what ‘Christ’ means.), while others pointed out that he came from Galilee. It had been prophesied that the Messiah would come from Bethlehem. The people at the festival knew that, and they also knew that Jesus had come from Galilee. What they didn’t know was that he had been born in Bethlehem.
Even the temple guards who had been sent to arrest Jesus were so affected by the power of his teaching that they went back to the temple without him. The chief priests and the Pharisees criticized the guards for failing to arrest Jesus. The only reason the Pharisees could give for Jesus to be arrested is that they and the other bigshots didn’t believe in him. But the common people who actually sat and listened to Jesus (apparently including these temple guards) found themselves deeply affected by his teachings. The bigshots found Jesus threatening to their power and privilege, but those who actually listened to him with open hearts found themselves drinking in the living water Jesus had talked about, and pouring out that living water for others – exactly as Jesus had said.
Let’s pray. Lord, we ask that you would open our hearts and minds so that the teachings of Jesus and the Holy Spirit that flows with them would fill us – and even overflow us into the lives of others, so they would come to experience the spiritual refreshment and new life only he can provide. Amen.
Have a great weekend, and may you worship God joyfully on Sunday!
Henry
Recent Comments